428
was written which referred to the
masses as "the great number of
the uncalled" and asked us to trust
rather to "our compass, our fate
and our fortune" in seeking a new
order. There was definitely to be
a new order, but it would be dis–
covered by the pure contemplation
of the pure and contemplative
few. In other words the shadow of
Mortimer
J.
Adler had fallen across
Black Mountain College, and posi–
tivism, materialism, science, prag–
matism and communism became
bogies.
More powerful than either Pro–
gressivism or Platonism was Prim–
itivism. In the early days students
read a book called
Flight from the
City
and acclaimed the Simple
Life. Even since, a gospel of man–
ual labor was preached, not in
Marx's sense but in that of Wil–
liam Morris or the later Tolstoi.
Physical labor combined with study
was the synthesis which our world
needed. Contact with the crafts–
man's materials would sensitize the
individual so that he would gain in
the control of himself and his en–
vironment. There was much talk
of Organic Growth, but the higher
type of man which the synthesis
was to engender did not appear,
and the sensitized individual in
Black Mountain as elsewhere fre–
quently controlled neither himself
nor his environment.
One of the tenets of educational
Primitivism is that modern special–
ization is wicked, and that, instead
of having a man for each job, each
man should do a bit of everything:
furniture making, farming, mining,
tree-felling, entertainment, as well
PARTISAN REVIEW
as teaching, advising, lecturing and
endless conferring in meetings.
Especially should he take over the
functions of the administration
which otherwise will be a non–
educational body controlling edu–
cation. The first result of this line of
thought and action is sheer disorder
in the whole organization and ad–
ministration of the college. The
second is arbitrary power: for
those who choose to devote them–
selves to administration become the
official administrators and thus, in
a college with no president and no
trustees, they become ·the bosses
too.
If
the same people also secure
the donations which keep the col–
lege going their power is per–
manent.
Bureaucratic chaos and highly
centralized control: the elaborate
forms of an extreme democracy
and the reality of a simple auto–
cracy: the formula is familiar. The
Black Mountain system, simple to
the point of naivete in theory, is
cumbersome to the point of impos–
sibility in practice. Since there are
so few set procedures, let alone
rules, there has to be a discussion
to decide upon procedure and prin–
ciple before anything can be done.
It is as if a parliament should
have to open every session by
discussing and finally framing
a new constitution. Sometimes
group A tells group B that it does
not agree with the fundamental
principles of the college, though
there is no record of those prin–
ciples, and members of group A
cannot agree as to what they are.
Since in addition Progressivists,
Platonists and Primitivists all agree
